Sweetheart
by fateofawakening
Summary: "Because, sweetheart, the world doesn't always go 'round like you want it to." *** Helping out Ciel Phantomhive against an army of mindless dolls, Lily introduces herself as a demon and forces herself into Ciel and Sebastian's lives. Despite their original hostility, however, it turns out that they simply cannot survive without her. **NOT a love triangle, mild romance**
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

She was seated on a window ledge, her legs crossed, most of her slender figure shadowed by the moonlight. Only a part of her face was visible, the moonlight spilling over her pale skin as she simply sat, waiting. Her presence was completely concealed, and so nobody knew she was there.

She began to hear commotion, coming from downstairs. She smiled. She'd expected this, and they were right on time, right on schedule. She sniffed the air, her eyes narrowing when she recognized the unmistakable scent of a Grim Reaper. She wasn't surprised at all, but even so, the presence of a shinigami raised a couple of questions in her mind.

She watched the little puppet man scurry by to safety, her dark red eyes following his every move. When he disappeared from sight, she returned her attention to the newcomers.

She'd done her homework, of course. None of them were unfamiliar to her.

Ciel Phantomhive, the earl with the Faustian contract, was the first one to emerge from the shadows. He was panting heavily, as though he'd just run up ten flights of stairs; which, she realized, he probably had. He straightened up, and his single visible eye narrowed as he saw the sight in front of him.

"More dolls?" Phantomhive hissed in anger as he saw the mindless dolls approaching him. "Grell, where are you?"

She cocked her head to one side; his demon was nowhere near him. Grell, she decided, was probably the reaper she'd sensed earlier. Phantomhive was backing up, but there was nowhere to go; he was nothing without the demon at his side.

Well, she thought, it's now or never. Your grand entrance is here.

_"Build them up with iron and steel, iron and steel, iron and steel. Build them up with iron and steel, my fair lady."_

She hummed along to the tune as she silently dropped from her window perch. Phantomhive hadn't yet noticed her, as he was busy trying to find a way out alive. She took another whiff of the air, and knew that his demon was rapidly approaching.

Time to work.

Before he could blink, she had dispatched half of the dolls' heads, leaving them limp on the ground, their strings severed. His blue eye went wide, and the rest of the dolls fell, a great crash echoing throughout the room.

"Who are you?"

"Indeed. I was about to rush to my master's aid, but it seems that my haste was not needed." A black-clad figure leapt down from the window where she'd been sitting merely seconds before, landing just slightly behind Phantomhive. "A female demon. I don't believe I've ever met you before."

She stayed silent; she knew very well who he was, but had never come into contact with him before. It was strange, actually, because they were both quite old, even among demons, and were near the top of the ranks. But no, they had never met.

"Answer me," Phantomhive demanded. He was clearly more confident and controlling when he had power on his side; if she'd saved him before his demon had come, he would have been cowering in fear.

She cracked a small smile. "I don't believe that's the correct way to treat someone who has just saved your life, now is it?" Before he could answer, she continued, "But I will look past that for today, so that you may continue on your quest. Your fiancée is waiting, Earl Phantomhive."

She gave him a low, sweeping bow, her hand on her chest, before straightening up and gesturing to the door behind her.

"Lady Elizabeth awaits."

If anything, she had made them more suspicious; however, the demon, whom had been named "Sebastian"by Phantomhive, put a gloved hand on the boy's shoulder. After a moment of decision, Phantomhive strode forward, walking past her without sparing her a second glance, and disappeared through the wooden door. The demon, on his heels, did send her a small look of warning, which she accepted. She had, after all, surprised them.

After a moment, she followed them, climbing another set of stairs effortlessly before entering the top floor to find Phantomhive dodging murderous blows from a blonde girl with an axe. She lifted one eyebrow; the girl was clearly acting against her will, screaming in protest as she swung at her fiancé, over and over again.

She looked up and spotted the nearly-invisible puppet strings strewn through the air. A small smirk rested on her lips. Very nice, she thought. Very well done.

But she leapt upwards, in that moment attracting the other demon's attention, and in one swift movement, she had wrenched the axe from the girl's hands with overwhelming power and hurled it up at the top of the room, where the strings were closely concentrated. The metal blade managed to cut through all the strings at once, and the blonde fell to the ground, going limp. Phantomhive rushed forward to attend to her.

Sebastian had already taken the chance and knocked the little puppet man to the ground. Upon realizing that he was merely a puppet as well, he returned to his master's side, peering down at the blonde.

She kept her distance from them, simply observing from one corner. She watched Phantomhive as he held the girl in his arms, and from far away, they looked just like a couple. She watched as, very slowly, the color returned to the girl's face, and she was the only one to detect the relaxation of his forehead.

She nearly forgot that she was more or less a stranger, and probably a threat. She remembered it when the three turned on her.

"Oh, that's right," she said, biting back a chuckle at the serious looks being directed at her. "I forgot to introduce myself, didn't I?"

The demon raised an eyebrow.

"Most people know me as Lilith of the Night," she said, before realizing that the blonde had been left out of the loop when it came to supernaturals. Well then, she thought, I'd better keep this simple. "I've come to offer you my services, Phantomhive."

"That's _Earl _Phantomhive to you."

"Very well, Phantomhive. Lady Elizabeth, perhaps you should take a little… nap. Just while we clean up things here."

"Don't you touch her," Phantomhive hissed. "Sebastian!"

The male demon was standing between her and the two humans in an instant, ready to go. She just raised an eyebrow, a slight breeze ruffling her ebony hair and causing her simple skirts to swirl. "No need to fear," she said, and watched as the girl's head drooped, her eyes drifting shut. She went limp in Phantomhive's arms, causing an uproar from the two men.

"What did you do?" Phantomhive demanded. He looked ready to kill. Lily wondered if she should've taken a gentler approach to this, rather than emerging out of the shadows like a demon – oh, wait, she _was_ a demon. Nothing could be done, then.

"Just a nice sleep," she said. "We women need our beauty sleep, after all. You don't need to look so frightened, sweetheart; she's dreaming about very nice things right now. I assure you that ninety-five percent of them include you and her."

His eyebrow twitched. She held back a smirk. "Fine, then. Continue."

"With what?"

"Who you are, and why you are here. You are a demon, are you not? Why are you here, if I already have a demon at my side?"

"Because, sweetheart, the world doesn't always go 'round like you want it to. I guess you could say that I'm… insurance." Her eyes gleamed in the dark, flashing a bright red for a split second. Sebastian did not miss it.

"Stop calling me 'sweetheart'," Phantomhive ground out. "What are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to become a maid at your manor and help little Sebby here kill all the big bad monsters while you sleep – " She paused, before adding with a smirk, "_ – sweetheart."_

Sebastian looked rather annoyed as well, clearly not taking well to the pet name. But she only flashed him a smile before returning her attention to Phantomhive, who looked as though he was stuck between _yes _and _no. _

Of course, she hadn't just spilled all her secrets out, but she was pretty sure that it was enough to convince him to let her stay. Whether he did or not would be beside the point, anyway; she would simply find another way into their lives. And he knew it.

"Fine," he finally uttered, standing up. "Sebastian, take Lizzy and get the carriage. I'm not _walking _all the way back."

Sebastian bowed quickly. "Yes, my Lord." He picked up the blonde and leapt out the window, running at a speed invisible to the human eye. Lily, of course, watched him as he returned to the town square and retrieved the carriage.

She glanced at Phantomhive, who was clearly uncomfortable but was trying his best not to show it. Such a kid, she thought. He was such a little kid, trying to be big; but that sort of façade wouldn't work on her.

"My name's Lily."

His attention snapped to her. "What?"

"My name's Lily," she repeated. If she was ever going to lower his walls, then she would have to do it first. If she wanted to help, then she had to show herself to him before she could. "The whole 'Lilith of the Night' thing is so overused that I want to puke. So I go around, and my name's Lily."

"It suits you," he said slowly, clearly not used to saying anything remotely _nice _to anybody, especially not a stranger. But, she reasoned, he was probably a little delusional anyway, having just barely rescued his fiancée from a certain death.

Sebastian was back, pulling up to the tower as she watched. In one movement, she sprinted across the room, snatching Phantomhive up as she went, and ignored his cry of surprise as she leapt out the window.

She landed right beside the carriage, her lavender dress swirling around her, and gently set the boy on the ground. He stumbled backwards, only to be caught by Sebastian. Once he had regained his composure, he sent her a heated glare.

She just smiled. "I guess I'm working for you, then," she said, swinging open the door of the carriage. "Treat me well, sweetheart."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to everyone who's already taken the time to read my story! As you may know, I've never really done anything on this site so I guess I'm new here :) thanks again!**

**Chapter 2**

The Phantomhive Manor was everything she had expected it to be: huge, beautiful, and haunting. It didn't suit a tiny, frail boy like Ciel Phantomhive at all, she thought as she deftly dusted off the library. No; the manor suited someone like Vincent Phantomhive, or perhaps even Sebastian. But not Ciel; or at least, not yet.

She worked at a comfortable pace and was finished within an hour, shocking the other three servants as she entered the kitchen. They gaped at her when she told them she was finished dusting off the library, and Finny ran to check to see if all the books and shelves really were dusted.

Of course, they really were. She had done an impeccable job. They stared at her in awe, before comparing her to Sebastian. She wasn't surprised, of course; they were bound to be similar when it came to these mindless household chores.

She began to fall into a comfortable routine. She would get up early and make Phantomhive's breakfast while Sebastian made the tea and went to wake up the boy. She would then wake up the rest of the manor, and help them along with their daily chores. More often than not, she ended up doing them instead of simply helping, but she supposed that there was nothing she could do about that.

In the evenings, she would write Latin, Spanish, and Chinese phrases and have Phantomhive translate them. He and Sebastian had discovered on the first day that she had an uncanny knack, even for a demon, of memorizing seemingly random phrases here and there, in just about every language there was to learn. So Sebastian advised his master to take advantage of their new walking dictionary, and so she passed on her phrases to the boy.

Two weeks passed, and nothing strange had taken place. Lily wasn't sure whether to be glad or worried about that.

"Where's my quote?"

She turned to see Phantomhive standing in her doorway, his arms crossed and a defiant look on his face. She glanced at the clock on her wall and realized that it was two minutes past eight, meaning that she was two minutes late. "Sorry," she said, signing Li Bai's name in Chinese under the phrase and handing the boy the slip of paper. "I got held up on a word."

He narrowed his eye at her before snatching the paper and flouncing off. She watched him go, leaning back in her chair as she spun the pen between her fingers. She doubted that he would be able to get all the words right; that particular quote was from a poem, and it was the most difficult line she had been able to find.

"You gave him a tough one." Sebastian let himself into her room, a small smirk playing on his lips. "'Thoughts on a Still Night'?"

"I thought he would appreciate it. Maybe it'll hit home."

"Are you trying to ruin him?"

"If anything, that's you. I'm only introducing him to some interesting quotes, here and there."

"Right." He shook his head slightly, and it was obvious that he didn't quite believe her. "If I know the young master, which I do, then he shall be calling for help in a few seconds."

Lily barely had time to raise a dark eyebrow at the demon before she heard a loud yell that carried through the manor. "Damn you!"

She sighed and stood up, re-adjusting the simple black-and-white dress she wore. Sebastian was smiling again, clearly finding the whole situation amusing. He followed her out the door and to the earl's study. With her acute sense of hearing, she could hear him growling in frustration.

She didn't bother knocking on the door and entered the room to see him hunched over on his desk, his fingers gripping his hair and pulling, hard. He didn't look up as she entered, instead choosing to mutter a stream of mild profanities under his breath.

At least they're mild, she mused. Otherwise I might just have to slap him.

"Which one are you stuck on, sweetheart?"

He raised his head and glared at her. If looks could kill, she would be seven feet under. Not that it would matter, of course, since she'd become quite acquainted with Hell itself. "What the hell does _si gu xiang_ mean?"

She sighed. "I guess you did get stuck after all. I'm sure you're glad that we're using _pinyin _and not something like _actual Chinese characters_, huh?"

Oh, she was definitely in for it now.

"Sweetheart," she began, ignoring his death glare and hopping onto his desk, causing him to let out a tiny squeak, "I trust that you must know at least one of those three words."

"_Xiang _is think."

"I guess I'll tell you, then. I don't think I could give you any more hints. _Di tou si gu xiang_: I lower my head and think of home," she quoted easily, before hopping back off the desk. "I think we need to work on your Chinese."

He glared. She smiled. In the corner, the other demon smirked, watching the scene play out. Of course, Lily didn't miss it; rarely did she miss any details.

She waved good-night to the two males and stepped out of the study, taking a deep breath and then exhaling. She genuinely liked the Phantomhive boy, knowing that he really was just a child when you stripped his status from him. He could be quite disagreeable, and quite bratty, but he wasn't a bad kid.

Sebastian, on the other hand, confused her. To be quite honest, she couldn't tell if he cared for Phantomhive or not. Although she knew that demons usually did not get attached to their masters in any way, she sincerely hoped that he did, at least to some extent. Phantomhive, after all, was merely a child, despite all his efforts to look grown-up.

As she lay on the queen-sized bed of her room, staring up at the blank ceiling, she remembered that she had been the same way. A child, but so eager to grow up; she knew that feeling all too well.


End file.
